26 June 2012 Gamer News

Game developer Cal Henderson, co-founder of Tiny Speck, has extracted files and textures from Blizzard’s MMO World of Warcraft to create entirely functional slippy maps of the game’s sprawling world using the Google Maps API. Calling the project ‘World of Mapcraft’, Henderson has detailed the lengthy technical process, as well as bits of trivia he found embedded in the files, on his personal blog.

South Korea bans virtual item trading

The South Korean government has banned the trade of virtual items. The country’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry has said the move is necessary to help crack down on teenage crime, and that virtual items and gold farming bots are a hindrance to creating a ‘healthy game culture’. Anyone found to violate the new law could face up to five years in jail and a fifty thousand dollar fine.

Xbox 720 leak?

A 56-page PowerPoint document purporting to contain details of Microsoft’s next Xbox strategy and Kinect 2 through to the year 2015 has leaked and subsequently been removed at the request of an international legal firm that represents the industry giant. The document referred to an Xbox 720 supporting BluRay, true 1080p 3D gaming, a device dubbed ‘Fortaleza Glasses’ providing Augmented Reality gaming over 4G and more. Microsoft has quashed the leak as rumour and speculation. The document has now been removed at the request of an international legal firm representing the industry giant.